Five years later, Wellstone's legacy lives on

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Heath Harrison: Five years later, Wellstone's Legacy lives On
The Herald-Dispatch
Oct. 25, 2007

Today is a somber day for democracy, as the five-year anniversary of Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone's death in a plane crash is observed.

Wellstone was the kind of leader rarely seen in Washington. A college professor with a history of activism, he was compelled to run for Senate upon hearing students repeatedly using "corrupt," "big money" and "phony" to describe what came to mind when thinking of politics.

Wellstone's message remains refreshing in today's era, in which politicians of both parties routinely favor big money interests over constituents.

"Politics is not about money or power or games or winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives, lessening human suffering, advancing the cause of peace of justice in our world," Wellstone often said.

more at:
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/opinions/x1435347915


----
Here's the great Senator speaking prior to the Iraq vote
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF2CLRZLK2E&eurl=http://www.wellstone.org/news/news_detail.aspx?itemID=10813&catID=6

[JDPriestly]

1. We shall not forget.

Thank you for posting this.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

2. Thanks for reading it

It's the first column I've written in a long while.

[WilliamPitt]

5. This is your work?

This is a simply wonderful, truly important piece of work. Thank you for writing it.

:toast:

:hug:

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

6. thanks

As a fan of your work, it means a lot to hear that from you.

I'm a little rusty and it's not my best, but I just wanted to get the message out there.
I was signed up to go to Minn. for the final week of his last campaign and I was pretty devastated to hear the news.

[WilliamPitt]

8. As your essay vividly proves,

embellished language, .50 cent words, hyperbole, etc. (i.e. my stock in trade ;) ) are utterly unnecessary when dealing with subjects like Wellstone and his service to America.

The facts themselves are more than enough. In fact, your straightforward writing honors him all the more, for it is just the simple truth of the matter, which is all he'd probably want said of his life.

[emilyg]

3. Thank you.

[EFerrari]

4. "My school is Wellstone, I go to Wellstone."

I've been trying to find the audio file for this song.

[EFerrari]

7. Found the lyrics but in truth, nothing compares to hearing the kids

singing the song.

The Wellstone School Song

Chorus:

My school is Wellstone
I go to Wellstone
I learn at Wellstone
I grow at Wellstone
My school is Wellstone
I go to Wellstone
And Wellstone is the school for me.

There's a school called Wellstone
That I'm telling you about
I think that it's terrific
Of that there is no doubt.
You can find it in St. Paul
The nicest city in the land
I'd like to tell, all the world
Wellstone school is grand.

(Chorus)

Both the teachers and the students
I think are pretty great
We are working hard to be
The finest school in all the state.
We have vision for the future
You can put us to the test
I think Paul and Sheila would agree
We're going to do our best.

(Chorus)

We are confident and caring
We are hard working and true
The principal and all the staff
Will work quite hard for you.
Send your children here to Wellstone
Education they'll receive
We'll do our best to teach them all
In that you can believe.

(

[dflprincess]

9. What a lovely tribute

It reminds me that we must keep fighting - no matter how hard it gets at times.

Just a moment to remember the other people on the plane:

Sheila Wellstone, Marcia Wellstone Markuson

Will McLaughlin, Tom Lapic and Mary McEvoy (campaign workers)

Richard Conry, Michael L. Guess (pilot and copilot)

[mnhtnbb]

10. Was Paul Wellstone assassinated? I recommend

American Assassination: The Strange Death Of Senator Paul Wellstone
By: Four Arrows , James H. Fetzer

[abq e streeter]

11. I've read this on the net

is it a book, and I've just seen excerpts? Pretty scary stuff and I know enough to put NOTHING past Cheney and gang...I sometimes wonder if the timidity of congressional Dems come from threats including reminders of Wellstone's "unfortunate little accident".

[dflprincess]

12. It's a fairly short book

You've probably gotton the important points from what you've read on the net.

I recall someone on this board posting a comment they heard from a Congressional staffer who said that very few people on the Hill thought Wellstone's death was an accident. However, I don't think that excuses their rolling over. If they're too scared to stand up they should get out of the way.

[mnhtnbb]

13. Was Mel Carnahan's death an accident? Same lingering questions

although not quite so many as when reviewing the details of Wellstone's plane crash.

[Ishoutandscream2]

14. 5 years? I remember that day here at DU

We were all just totally shocked. I just kept denying that it happened. 2002 was a really, really, shitty year.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

15. I learned of the news on DU

thqat his plane was down. there was no confirmation that he was on it at the time. I had to run to an appointment and, unfortunately, the only news I could find on my car radio was Limbaugh and I had to hear it come from from that gasbag.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. So did I

In those days, the titles of the latest threads, whatever they were, appeared in the front page, and when I signed onto DU that morning, there was a thread from Jiacinto (old-timers will remember Jiacinto), asking in his usually graceless way, "What if Wellstone is really dead?"

I had not yet moved back to Minnesota, but all my relatives live here, so I was aware of Paul Wellstone.

It was a sad day. People out in Oregon, knowing that I was originally from Minnesota, told me that they cried when they heard the news.

It was a bad, bad autumn, including the disaster of Election Day 2002. The only bright spots were that Oregon's Democratic gubernatorial candidate narrowly defeated a law-and-order knuckle dragger and that all our Dem Congresscritters were re-elected.

Then came the news that Coleman had won the Minnesota Senate race, partly due, I'm convinced, to dirty tricks with the absentee ballots. (According to the very Republican secretary of state, people who had submitted absentee ballots for Coleman were okay, but people who had submitted absentee ballots for Wellstone were required to send for and return new ballots by Election Day, something which many travelers. like my mother and stepfather, were unable to do.)

Otherwise, the Dems gathered in the ballroom of a downtown Portland hotel to watch the election returns were stunned and subdued and really patronizing the bar.

I count it as one of the more depressing days of my life.

[scarletwoman]

17. Thank you for writing such a lovely article! A wonderful tribute!

I think the loss of Paul Wellstone was one of those crucial turning points that occur now and then throughout history. Had he lived and been re-elected, the entire course of these past 5 years might have gone down differently.

His death was a tragedy of massive proportions... :cry:

sw

[scarletwoman]

18. Kicking this up...